Will schools get playing fields back?

TOM Richmond (Yorkshire Post, August 7) was right to remind us of the legacy of the National Lottery instigated by Sir John Major in 1994. He is also right to praise the efforts and super enthusiasm of London’s Mayor Boris Johnson. We should also remember the super-human efforts of Sheffield’s Seb Coe (former politician as well as athlete) in winning the bid and in leading the organisation that has been needed for us to be ready for the Games.

Tom Richmond was also correct to remind us of how many stars have entered the true ethos of the games including Andy Murray whose image has changed dramatically in 2012.

Yorkshire, of course, has had its successes. Apart from Jess Ennis we have had gold medals from Ed Clancy, Nicola Adams and Alistair Brownlee and several other individual silver and bronze medals.

We should not however be talking about Yorkshire in the league table because the team medals were won with the help of stars from other parts of Great Britain.

Now the Games have finished, the big question will be the legacy. Can we move forward to future success in world championships and in Rio? That will depend on the dedication of our stars but it will also depend on funding and facilities. Long term it will also depend on the ability to get youngsters involved at an early age.

The fact that sport has been pushed aside in our schools (as have art, drama and music) in the pursuit of academic excellence will be a hindrance. Many schools have lost their playing fields. Have our politicians the stomach or the imagination to reverse this trend?

From: Kenneth Wright, Eskdale Avenue, Altofts, Normanton.

THE 2012 Olympic Games have proved to be a wonderful spectacle and watching it unfold on TV has been a riveting experience.

However, there is one “amazing”, “unbelievable”, nay “incredible” record that so far has escaped mention. I refer, of course, to the number of times the word “fantastic” has rolled off everyone’s tongue.

How on earth a word that describes a fantasy, a dream ie unreal can be used to describe the greatest reality show on earth puts me completely out of the medals.

From: SB Oliver, Churchill Grove, Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

WHEN telling us that she attended the Olympic Games in London in 1948, Christine Wood (Yorkshire Post, August 4) informed us that she still has tickets for the opening ceremony which cost 7s/6d “or approximately 37.5p” .

I risk being labelled pedantic but the conversion of amounts of money from the 1940s (or any early decades) directly into today’s values, requires some consideration of the variables of both inflation and price-indices before quoting what appears to be very cheap prices then.

The purchasing power of what cost 7s/6d in 1948 had inflated (nearly trebled) to about £1 by 1971 when decimalisation changed it to 37.5p.

Today’s equivalent of Ms Wood’s 1948 ticket-price is 
about £12 (not 37.5p) but is 
still ridiculously cheap compared to the 2012 opening ceremony cheapest price which (I think) started at £20 and went up to nearly £2,000 for the privileged few.

It simply shows just how much money is now being asked, and squeezed, from enthusiasts, many of whom are just average working people that want to see the best in sport without getting ripped off at the gate, as happens with football.

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

WITH regards to successive governments attitude to sports being taught in school, I thoroughly agree with the teachers’ viewpoint that not enough investment is being made. The gradual increase of obesity in schoolchildren is the result of a negative trend to outside sports – the only sport some children indulging in is that of computer games – and this lack of exercise is carried through to the later years, evident by the number of teenage porkers we see roaming our streets.

However the idea that qualified PE instructors should be employed worries me a little, because from my own experience at school these “sporty” types fail to engage the less athletic in favour of the ones that have potential to become high achievers.

From: Denis Sutton, Wyncroft Grove, Bramhope.

CONGRATULATIONS Nicola Adams. Superb skill, controlled aggression all masked by a bubbly personality and cherubic smile. A product of the Burmantofts Boxing Club which until the mid 40s occupied premises over the stables at the end of Belmont Avenue. Can anyone remember it?

From: Dai Woosnam, Woodrow Park, Scartho, Grimsby.

IT is quite amazing that every TV news bulletin for the past fortnight started with a report from the Olympics. And I do not mean two minutes, but usually the best part of 10 before we heard the words “And the rest of the news...”.

And then we cut to the horrors of Aleppo. It is close to an obscenity.

From: G J C Reid, Mayfield Road, Whitby.

THE Olympics in a word? 
Ma-JESS-tic.